Bangor is ‘that close’ to ending long-term homelessness

Maine Focus Gabor Degre | BDN Larry Noyes’ hands are pictured while he and his partner, Carolyn Fish, lived in the homeless encampment along the Penobscot River in Bangor in November 2017. Noyes died shortly after they were able to move into an apartment in Bangor during the summer of 2018. By Callie Ferguson, BDN Staff • February 12, 2019 1:00 am A Maine housing developer has received $350,000 from the federal government to build additional housing in the Bangor area in an effort that could nearly rid the city of long-term homelessness. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the money to Community Housing of Maine, the state’s largest housing provider for people who were homeless, on Feb. 6, according to the organization’s director, Cullen Ryan. MaineHousing will provide a dollar-for-dollar match to cover the cost of construction, a spokeswoman said. [Subscribe to our free Maine Focus newsletter] The money will go toward constructing a four-unit apartment building for people who have been homeless for more than six months and will require tenants to receive case management services to help them stay housed. On the surface, it doesn’t seem like four new apartments will make much difference toward ending long-term homelessness. But, as of the most recent official count in July, only seven people in Bangor were homeless for more than six months. “We’re that close,” said Ryan, who also chairs Maine’s Statewide Homeless Council, a policy advisory group established by the Maine Legislature in 2005. [They… [Read full story]